“Victims and their families have been fighting for recognition and justice for decades and great victories were achieved when the Victorian Inquiry and the Royal Commission were established. But ‘for what’ they say.”
The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is after 2 years, at its halfway mark. The Commission is focused on systemic issues and institutional responses to allegations and incidents of child sexual abuse. Public hearings have been the main way the Commission does its work.
Hearings have demonstrated that the impact of the abuse has been profound and multi-dimensional and the damage compounds year after year and that suicides and premature deaths of victims are widespread. Evidence presented to the Commission shows that the impact and trauma resulting from the abuse is intergenerational, affecting victims, extended family, partners, wives, husbands, children, parents and grandchildren.
Worn out by having to fight institutions and government, and despite taking serious personal risks by giving evidence in public hearings to the Commission, Courtin argues that many victims and families have had their hopes for justice dashed by the failure of the Federal Government and the responsible institutions.
Courtin writes that many continue to be victimized by the system and by institutions and are shattered that justice has not prevailed.
Judy Courtin writes that the Federal Government not only showed contempt for child victims of sexual abuse, but its response further abuses victims of child sexual abuse. Further, she argues that the Abbott Government abandoned the 65,000 survivors of child sex crimes who now have to fight the institutions where the crimes occurred.
Evidence to the Commission shows that officials in institutions supposed to protect children actively conspired to abuse and rape them, however, more than 80% of alleged clergy sex offenders have evaded criminal accountability.
Many of the victims gave evidence that they tried to tell people in authority of the horrors they suffered, only to be severely punished, dismissed or forgotten.
Victims have provided evidence implicating influential Church, religious and community leaders in cover up of abuse. Crimes were actively denied, ignored or covered up.
The hierarchy and leadership of many churches, faith groups and institutions, as well as public authorities, knew about the abuse as far back as the 1950’s and 1960’s, but acted to protect their own interests, image and credibility at the expense of victims. The response by most institutions to victims has been hostile, dismissive, legalistic and victim blaming.
Judy Courtin argues that survivors want the whole truth to come out and that should go further than what the offenders themselves did, arguing that:
‘It was much more important to have accountability of the hierarchy on the concealing than accountability of the offender’
Courtin believes the lack of convictions for concealing abuse means church figures and leaders enjoy impunity. Her research shows that there has not been one conviction for the crime of concealing sex crimes and a serious lack of accountability and impunity by the institutions involved. She writes:
Cardinal George Pell (formerly Australia’s highest rank Catholic leader) has been accused of knowing of serious sexual abuse and rape and doing nothing; of trying to bribe victims to keep quiet; of ignoring or dismissing complaints; of colluding to protect perpetrators; and of transferring known offenders.
Many charitable organizations made it possible for powerful and influential people to engage in and conceal highly sophisticated and organized criminal activities. Victims and victim groups have made a serious critique of behaviour by churches, faith and charitable organizations who benefit from significant public funding and support and in some cases tax exempt status.
Some victims and victim groups have called for churches and charities involved in abuse to have their tax free status withdrawn.
In recent years there has been a plethora of State and now Federal Inquiries into child sexual abuse and child protection. The Royal Commission commissioned a study of the extent to which recommendations from those inquiries had been implemented which found that less than half (48%) of the recommendations had been implemented fully.
According to the testimony of a bishop and a “leading” psychiatrist the biggest problem we survivors faced came as a result of some getting a happy god and some getting an angry god.
Those who got the happy god fared well apparently.
The only winner thus far has been for the preservation of mythology and superstition and an assumed yes answer to an unanswerable question – surely the children of the future deserve better than more of the same inane and unfounded superstition and wishful thinking that allowed the wholesale rape and abuse of children to take place right across the planet in these human sacrifice and human suffering cult driven belief systems.
This Royal Commission has yet to acknowledge any of those aspects publicly despite the issue being presented to them from many directions – in that regard they fail us survivors and they fail their stated obligation to the truth and the evidence which combined makes for the most horrific failure towards the children of the future.
Judy Courtin has been an avid campaigner for justice for survivors of abuse and reared a Catholic, holds a deep understanding of the spiritual impact on the lives of those who have been scarred forever, past and present..
Great article and work done By Judy Courtin to get to the truth.
The problem with this kind of outcome of the Commission is that the less well informed and supporters of the religious institutions, particularity the Catholic Church will be validated in claiming that the scandal is “not as bad as it was made out to be” and that “it is all in the past” and that “the matter has been dealt with” etc.
In reality the lack of courage to deal with the matter decisively will do little to help vulnerable children today particularity in deeply religious developing countries of South America and the South Pacific . Perpetrating organizations there are likely to risk the safety of children by covering up crimes of child rapists under their control. This is because there will be a signal coming from Australia that this serious systemic crime is acceptable to the people of Australia because culpable senior church authorities have not been held criminally liable.
If you have been subject to a sex crime by a priest , have information relating to sexual assault by priests, or employee of the church you are obliged to report to police. If necessary, seek help healing. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is http://www.snapaustralia.org
Thanks John, Lynne and Mark for your interest and comments. John I had not heard those comments about a happy God and angry god. Who was it who made those appalling comments? Like you I am troubled by the failure so far to get to the core foundational beliefs, cultural and institutional norms, leaderships styles and structures, both religious and non-religious, that made these horrific events possible and that still sustain these institutions. Lynne yes I agree with you about Judy Courtin. You put it beautifully. Thank you Mark for your kind words. One of my concerns is that the churches and religious institutions and welfare organisations responsible for these abuses will not be fully held to account. They are criminal organisations and need to be held criminally to account for what happened. I applaud the Commission’s work to create the offence of criminal negligence to hold organisations criminally responsible for the creation and/or management of risk of harm and for their response when harm is done to a child. However, this require state governments to create new offences to cover such conduct. And it needs to be made retrospective and applied to all the churches, religious institutions, welfare groups and other institutions who are ultimately responsible for what happened. Hold them criminally liable and punish them by also removing for example their tax exempt status. Sadly, the power of the churches and other powerful lobbies will prevent that from happening. Hence my pessimism. Good luck with the Network. Australians owe a huge debt to all the survivors and victims groups who have fought for justice on these issues. In solidarity
This may very well have to end up at the UN, then the Australian Bishops Conference who established the Truth Justice and Healing Council, supported by all and sundry,claiming refuge following orders will enter the foray once again.